18 Arcadia High students recognized in National Merit Scholar Program

18 Arcadia High students have been recognized as semifinalists in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Arcadia High’s 2025 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists join an elite group of students that represent the top 1% of high school seniors across the nation. Over the past 30 years, Arcadia High School has had at least 11 or more students earn this distinction. A total of over 700 students from Arcadia High have been named semifinalists in the last three decades.

Arcadia High’s 2025 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists are Avani A. Athavale, Minjun Cha, Lewis Cheng, Hei Yin Choi, Syed S. Hussain, Dhruti G. Kulkarni, Avik Kumar, Annette L. Lin, Mia Y. Liu, Don C. Luc, Max M. Ma, Zuni Ng, Atharv A. Prabhutendolkar, Anas, S. G. Yousuf Mohammed, Catherine Z. Wang, Herrick X. Wang, Zejin Xu, and Evan S. Yen.

Students begin their National Merit Scholarship Program journey during their junior year of high school when they take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Over 1.3 million juniors from about 21,000 high schools across the country took the 2023 PSAT/NMSQT, which operated as the initial screening tool for entry into the National Merit Scholarship Program. The nationwide cohort of this year’s Semifinalists represent the highest-scoring entrants from each state.

Of the approximately 16,000 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists selected, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level and will be notified of this designation in February 2025. To be considered for a finalist spot in the National Merit Scholarship Program, Arcadia High’s 18 semifinalists will work closely with their school counselors to submit a detailed scholarship application, which will include information about their academic records, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and rewards received. Each semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test to be considered for advancement in the program.

National Merit Scholarship finalists will be eligible to compete for nearly 7,000 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million, which will be announced next spring.